Tattoos - Suck or Rock?

upkeep has been pretty smooth. no infections, no scabbing, just the expected flaking, peeling, and massive itching. parts of it are feeling like real skin again!

part of me is already thinking about getting a Lord Baphomet on the other shoulder but the other half is saying 'are you nuts let one heal first'.

that looks so badass i can understand the temptation to get another right away.

i have the ever-increasing desire to get a tattoo of some variation on http://hyperallergic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Cage_433_3-1200.jpg, but i haven't quite convinced myself that it wouldn't be comically pretentious (though i don't know why i'd care about that) or just look really dumb.

i've seen someone with just the "tacet I tacet II" etc on their arm

I've got a lot and am slowly getting the bits on my arms and left leg incorporated into sleeves of varying degrees. I've also got my eventual hilarious joke of a chest piece planned but that probably won't happen until I'm 50.

I also had a ridiculous tribal tramp stamp since 1996 that I've been getting covered up and made into a pretty huge Moby Dick / Pequod / Ahab-in-a-boat piece over most of my lower back. I go in every couple of months I ask my dude (who is young and always just laughs at me for having a gotten a big 90s tribal back tattoo) for about $200 worth and he'll work for like two hours or so.

i just got this done yesterday:

https://scontent-b-pao.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10444558_10152130568527050_6953733447337607897_n.jpg

i think most ppl get family portraits done when they have old photos of their really beautiful/handsome grandparents or whatever - but my nana is from stout farmer stock. she's 91 and i can't wait for her to see this in august when i go back to visit.

this was only supposed to be the size of my hand, but when i got there the artist had made it pretty huge and it doesn't take much to convince me to go bigger, so now it takes up my entire thigh.

the nose looks a bit weird bc it was still bleeding.

Nice.

fucking awesome, love the color

great shading on that one too. how long did it take?

2 hours

surface is healed and it still looks vibrant and dope as hell. actually has been for almost two weeks now (much easier than I expected). the feeling of new hair growing in is....weird.

so I hear that like the 'overall' healing still takes a few months (ie, there's a layer of skin still forming)? do I still need to avoid the pool or am I good?

when the scab part is done u are good to go in my exp

got a new one at idle hand in sf last month, recommend the hell out of that place, great work from chill people

that's who did my nana tattoo!

ha oh I see that! Holly! me too, she is great

I got a little geometric elephant today on the inside of my right leg. I am totally in love with it. Going to start planning with the same woman who did it for a similarly styled edelweiss/mountain scene on my shoulder.

http://i59.tinypic.com/nfo3ut.jpg

that is awesome!

Yeah that's pretty cool!

Thanks guys! I gave her some pictures of similar ones and she did the drawing herself and I love the way it came out. I can't stop staring at it. :)

Ooooh, I love that. Did the idea just come straight from yr brain or is there a reference there?

I guess it was my idea but i got inspiration online and let the artist run with it. I really love geometric designs and I wanted an elephant because 1) they're amazing 2) they're good luck and 3) my mom used to collect them so it's sort of a tribute to her. I found a couple geometric designs online and sent them to the artist who used them for inspiration to draw this one. I also really really love watercolor tattoos but they have to be done right or the colors will bleed and eventually get muddled so I showed her some in the style I like and she did the shading and splatters in a way that won't do that but still looked very close.

Cool!

am i insane? i think i am

http://i.imgur.com/LVvAdCT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tMnCIGR.jpg

right now the dharmacakra's looking less impressive in comparison but the color/shade will change that

what is the thing that's not a dharmacakra? it has a kind of jim woodring vibe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra

nice work, clouds, your tattoo artist did a fantastic job. and it DOES look very woodring-ian!

thanks! and yes my dude is amazing. after finishing the vajra he said "that looks like the beginning of a sleeve" which is totally true. i can see this becoming an addiction :o

Getting a lord baphomet right now.

http://oi59.tinypic.com/e028oh.jpg

That's a well done Satan!

now to conceal it from my mother for the remainder of my life!

Most people spend their whole lives hiding things from their mother, right? All you need is sleeves!

yarp. hence the location :)

my left arm at this point is a de-facto whole sleeve in progress. I have an idea that's cute whereas the rest of the arm is more wicked-lookin' and I'm not sure whether to just have a part that's more cute than wicked or find another spot for the cute thing

Rock.

I've wanted to get started on my right arm (other than the Black Label skateboard logo I've had for 13 years) for ages and had no real plans to do so until I visited my Seattle and a friend of my brother-in-law was in town tattooing and one thing led to another and I ended up spending five hours getting this:

http://i.imgur.com/MQU0MO9.jpg

Nice! Is the design something you brought in?

sick

i'm getting the jones for a third

It's hanuman, from a massive painting of the ramakien in the thai grand palace. I brought in a photo I took and the guy tweaked it and added the clouds and mountains, and left it open for future sleeving purposes. I feel vaguely like a lout being a non-buddhist and non-hindu.

so dope that is awesome

Woah

Slayer theme continues on right arm. bad camera angle but man this guy did some dope shading..

http://i58.tinypic.com/34i480j.jpg

got reminded today that i have a self made tatt: wood carbon crayon i jammed in the palm of my left hand some 30 years ago, forgot the deets. the black dot is still there.

Damn, HSB, they did a nice job there. Next you need the Slayer logo as a bagel crossed with shmear knives and spread with sour cream, SLAYER written in lox.

yeah I'm gonna seek this guy from now on. he's so precise.

hmm, giving me ideas. that might finally be the ass tattoo I've been long desiring.

might have to start a separate ass-tattoo thread which i will NOT bookmark no offense

As if your body wasn’t already unique
You went and put an image of an espresso on your arm

really takes the right person to wear a tattoo

So many people get them to look cool and just end up looking like try hard knobs

Or to look tough. What makes a person tough has nothing f to do with what branding they put on themselves

I am exceedingly glad that "Suck or Rock" never supplanted "Classic or Dud".